I am trying to choose between buying a Nintendo Switch or a Nintendo DS.
This may not be the perfect community to ask - but I can't think of any better place.
The reason for my question: I don't want to own obsolete hardware in 10 years. Lately most games seem to depend on a "phone home" feature, which is not really an issue for my pc because it is always connected, but a console is something I want to play always and everywhere.
I already did some searching and found that games can be played offline fine (most of them, some exceptions are there like Multiplayer and Mortal Kombat), but:
- There is something like the paid Nintendo Online Account. I am not planning on having a paid account. How much of the system depends on the account?
- Can I have progression in a game (let's say: one of the Zelda franchise) and will my Wife and Kids all have their own progression, without having to pay for X accounts?
- People who own a Switch, let's take this to extremes, do you feel like in 20 years from now you can still do the same things on your hardware as you can do now? (No multiplayer is fine)
Also, feel free to rant about "paying is not owning", the state of the gaming industry is horrible.
edit: Thank you all for the comments! I don't post a lot, so it was kinda overwhelming :)
For clarity:
- I meant I want to "buy for life" (not really "life", but, if the hardware survives you can play on pre-internet consoles forever - you can even buy more games if you can find them)
- I want to buy a physical copy of the games, not download them
I've decided to go with the Nintendo DS for now (I have a DSi - this week I bought a couple of games, 2nd hand). Reasons:
- I already had it
- Joycons on switch. Multiple people mentioned having problems with them. I don't count on being able to buy them new in 10 years, meaning they will have to last.
Again: thank you all for the useful input!
Nintendo online is a lot like Xbox live. You can play single player without it (generally) but have to pay to get online/multiplayer
yes, you can have multiple accounts on the switch each with their own save, without paying for online for all/any of them.
I don't know if I'd guarantee that. Who knows what dumb services things rely on. If you want something that'll work maybe consider a more open ecosystem like that of the steam deck or its competitors
I don't know if Steam counts as an "open" ecosystem though. You still kinda need to be online to play Steam games, and you can only launch said game with Steam. DRM free option would be GOG games, which doesn't require online and the GOG launcher to play games afaik.
Steam Deck is an open platform because you can run any OS, launcher, etc. on it. It's just a handheld PC. Steam itself is a closed ecosystem but the Deck is very open.